1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a storage and shipping system comprising corrugated containers which house plastic vessels or bottles used to hold fragranced liquid bleaches in which the shipping and storage containers are stacked on top of one another. In the stacks, in all of the shipping and storage containers except for the topmost one, the plastic vessels will share some of the vertical component of the compression load caused by the shipping and storage container directly located above a given shipping and storage container. In a further embodiment of the invention, the problem of surface wetting of blown polyethylene bottles by certain additives in liquid bleach is recognized and addressed. In another embodiment of the invention is provided a stable fragranced bleaching composition. In a still further embodiment of this invention is provided a homogenous fragrance preblend and a method of making thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Liquid bleaches, both hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide based products, have found wide commercial acceptance and are commonly used in a variety of household cleaning and laundering products. However, in the quest to provide more diverse products to consumers, it is desirable to add certain esthetic adjunct materials to these liquid bleaches. Fragrances, for instance, have been added to liquid hypochlorite bleaches to impart a pleasing scent. As with other liquid bleach products, such fragranced bleaches would be packaged in plastic, relatively thin-walled bottles or jugs. These plastic bottles or jugs are typically shipped in shipping and storage containers made of corrugated material.
Beeby, U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,667 disclosed a combination shipping and display container in which vertical partitions are used to absorb the compression load due to other containers, and expressly provides that articles, such as cylindrical containers, contained therein, do not bear any portion of such compression load. Dike, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,052 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,688, provides plastic bottles used to house hypochlorite bleaches or the like which have an interlocking base and handle configuration in which the base of the bottle is indented to allow for nesting and interlocking of the handle of the bottle directly below it. Godshalk et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,749 discloses a plastic container having a recessed base such that the side portions of the base rest upon on reinforced sections directly below it. Yet one other reference, Hubert et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,207 shows that plastic containers can have interlocking bottle shoulder and base arrangements.
In order to distribute the load evenly so that no damage is caused to the plurality of plastic vessels or bottles, because of compression load stress caused by stacking the containers, virtually no headspace is provided between the tops of the plastic bottles (which typically includes the closure) and the top wall or panel of the carton. In this manner, each of the plastic vessels or bottles share some of the vertical component of the compression load bearing on the carton, usually from another similarly filled carton. It is important to loadshare in this manner, since crushed or damaged cartons present not merely esthetic or appearance problems; even weight distribution prevents or alleviates the problem of stressing the plastic bottles beyond their "safe" load bearing capacity. Additionally, crushed containers, such as those on the bottom of the stack, can actually collapse, causing the entire stack to topple. However, the need to loadshare in order to prevent damage to the containers and contents must be balanced by the need to prevent too great compression on the plastic bottles, which, because of their relatively thin-walled construction, can be damaged by too great a vertical load.
It is further surprising and heretofore unknown that there is a relationship between the type of dispersing material used to disperse immiscible adjuncts such perfumes or fragrances throughout a substantially aqueous liquid bleach composition housed in such plastic bottles or vessels and the amount of stress-cracking which occurs in such plastic vessels or bottles, especially when a compression load is placed thereon.